The September edition of Holiday Heat is available now for pre-order! Click here for your copy!

I wish I could say that I had this feeling today, but I don’t. Still, each time I finished a month of Holiday Heat, I did get a taste of that “I just finished a novel” feeling. And it’s great.

• The sense of accomplishment. Even a short book is tough to finish, and longer books have even more to keep track of than shorter ones — characters, locations, actions, plot points. No matter how long your book is, though, you should feel a sense of accomplishment. As Harlan Ellison said: “Writing is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver, and I tell you — as if you haven’t been told a million times already — that writing is harder.”
• You can hold it in your hands. If you really want to, you can print out your book and hold it in your hands. There’s something special about that.
• Other people can read it. Sure, I’ve put excerpts of all my work on this blog, but there’s nothing like being able to send a file to someone and say “this is my book for you to read.”
• Revisions will make it better. Though the revision process can sometimes take longer than the actual writing of the book — and sometimes leads to rewriting the entire book itself — you know that you’ll be doing revisions soon to make your book even better than it already is.
• You can start the next one. Most writers have a list of things they’re working on simultaneously, and they’ll focus on one piece, especially as it gets close to the end of the process. Once the book is done, you can start working on your next project. (Or you can take a break. Your choice.)

Finish your book. You’ll love the feeling.